Great Gatsby Corruption

Possibly one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most astonishing work, The Great Gatsby is not just a magnificent story, but an insightful lesson of society’s flaws during the 1920’s. Fitzgerald’s novel creates an atmosphere of superficiality, dissatisfaction and dishonesty by the depictive illustration of each character’s defect.

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With economical growth, the immoral society of the twenties ultimately brought corruption to the American Dream of achieving prosperity. At the end of the first chapter, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is introduced, the symbol for hope and a promising future for the Great Gatsby.

In the second chapter however, the reader is presented with the, “… valley of ashes… where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally… of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” . The valley of ashes can be interpreted as the superficial and dirt-filled materialistic world that the characters live in. The author’s great use of imagery helps accentuate the setting and the crumbling foundation of society. In Fitzgerald’s novel, Gatsby is labeled as “new money”.

Having come from no wealthy background, and building his fortunes early in life, Gatsby nearly fulfills all the aspects of the American Dream with hard work, courage and determination but comes short by not achieving satisfaction from prosperity. Money was the critical reagent to Gatsby’s corruption that unfolds when he describes Daisy. “Her voice is full of money” . Often identified as a symbol of wealth, Daisy was Gatsby’s main goal. Gatsby had an enormous need to impress Daisy with his riches; his tainted mind could only offer what he had acquired all these years, money.